Politics

South Fulton County -- Fulton County will host a series of community meetings and listening sessions in June and July to discuss the 2030 Fulton County Comprehensive Plan and the 2011 Solid Waste Management Plan. These meetings will allow the citizens of Unincorporated South Fulton County to provide direct input into these two important documents, including the Comprehensive Plan Map.

The Community Wide Kick-off Meeting will be held on Thursday, June 2nd from 6:30 p.m.-8 p.m. at the South Fulton Service Center located at 5600 Stonewall Tell Road, College Park.

Fulton County uses the Comprehensive and Solid Waste Management Plans to guide choices about how they will invest in and develop the future of Unincorporated South Fulton County in these respective areas. The plans provide direction, tools and strategies for a vibrant and thriving Unincorporated South Fulton County.

A new SBA Office of Advocacy sponsored report by Robert W. Fairlie examines the contributions of immigrants to the U.S. economy. Some of its findings are:

Immigrants are nearly 30 percent more likely to start a business than are nonimmigrants, and they represent 16.7 percent of all new business owners in the United States.

Immigrant business owners make significant contributions to business income, generating $67 billion of the $577 billion in U.S. business income, as estimated from 2000 U.S. Census data. They generate nearly one-quarter of all business income in California—nearly $20 billion—and nearly one-fifth of business income in New York, Florida, and New Jersey.

Nearly 30 percent of all business owners in California are immigrants, compared with about 12.5 percent of the population of U.S. business owners.

Norred & Associates, Atlanta's largest locally-owned and operated security firm, has been awarded two substantial security contracts by Fulton County and the city of Atlanta that are expected to generate additional hiring in the metro Atlanta area, according to company officials.

Norred's contracts with Fulton County and the city of Atlanta are for one year each, with two one-year options.
Norred & Associates has hired and assigned 117 employees to the Fulton County contract. Approximately 150 security officers will be allocated to the city of Atlanta contract.
May 27 is the anticipated start date for the city contract.

College Park -- The Fulton County Board of Assessors will host eight public meetings entitled “Understanding Your Assessment Notice” at locations throughout the County. The meetings are designed to educate property owners on the changes to property assessment notices and the appeals process brought on by Senate Bill 346. The new legislation calls for every property owner in Georgia to receive a property tax assessment notice every year.

The latest news is that the assessments that were sent out to residents are WRONG, and that homeowners should focus on the assessed property amount and determine if they think that is correct or not. Homeowners are being told to disregard the amount owed line and to focus on the value assessment and file an appeal based on that number.

Since there has been so much confusion, meetings like this on on Friday should be attended so that all your questions can be answered.

Members of the Board of Assessors staff will be on hand at the meetings to answer property owners’ questions. For more information on the public meetings or the property tax assessment notices, log on to www.fultonassessor.org or call 404-612-6440.

ATLANTA -- Americans participating in the United States Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) second National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day event last weekend turned in more than 376,593 pounds of unwanted or expired medications.

This is 55 percent more than the 242,000 pounds the public brought in during last September's event.

The medications were taken to 5,361 take-back sites in all 50 states.

"The amount of prescription drugs turned in by the American public during the first two take-back events is simply staggering -- 309 tons -- and represents a clear need for a convenient way to rid homes of unwanted or expired prescription drugs," said DEA administrator Michele M. Leonhart.

WARM SPRINGS, Ga. – In other interesting news, the Former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt has a home in Georgia and its still standing. Now, Roosevelt’s Little White House is a historic site and it attracts visitors from all over the United States.

Roosevelt built the house while he was governor of New York, as a getaway of sorts. He first came to Warm Springs ten years previously looking for a cure for polio and found relief in the 88-degree spring waters of Warm Springs. Some say, the New Deal was developed based on his experiences in the town.

According to Georgia State Parks, “Visitors can tour FDR’s home, which has been carefully preserved very much as he left it, the servants and guest quarters, and the nearby pools complex that first brought the future president to Warm Springs.”